DRIVER IN CHASE GETS 79-YEAR TERM

Kevin Cales, a stalker whose high-speed chase of his ex-girlfriend triggered a crash that killed her and her four passengers, was sentenced Wednesday to 79 years in prison - a virtual life sentence.

The chase that reached 120 mph on May 27, 2006, ended when the car driven by Maryneliz Jimenez, 21, the mother of Cales' son and the object of Cales' obsession, lost control of her vehicle on the Chamberlain Highway in Berlin. It burst into flames, ejecting some of the five people in her car.

Cales, who had two frightened passengers in his Volvo, drove off without trying to help. During the trial that ended with his conviction Jan. 16 on five counts of first-degree manslaughter and other charges, Cales insisted that he was only chasing Jimenez to talk to her.

Carmen Carrasquillo, Edmundo's mother and aunt of Gene Galarza, was one of several family members of victims who spoke in Superior Court in New Britain before the sentence was imposed. She asked that Cales receive life in prison without any chance of freedom.

"That way he will wake up each day and be reminded of the five innocent people he killed," she read from a letter. "There is no justice if Kevin Cales can ever be released on parole."

Most of the victims did not even know Cales, Judge Thomas V. O'Keefe Jr. said.

Cales' chase at such excessive speed made it certain that someone would die that night, the judge said; it was just a question of how many.

O'Keefe cited the criminal history of Cales, 34, of New Britain, who he said now has convictions for 19 felonies, five misdemeanors, three violations of probation and several DUI cases. The judge also said Cales has fathered three children he has not supported, barely completed one year of high school before dropping out and has a minimal work history.

"Prisons are built for persons like Kevin Cales," O'Keefe said of a defendant he said he believes would lapse into a life of crime within a week of release. The 79-year sentence will protect society by putting Cales behind bars for life, he said.

Cales apologized in court, saying he wished he would have died and not the five people who did.

Kevin Murphy, who prosecuted the case, said the state believes there is no chance of rehabilitating Cales.

Murphy said Cales stalked Jimenez for weeks, waiting at numerous places to confront her, and at least once slashing her car tires. The day of the fatal crash, Cales stalked her to five places before starting what the prosecutor called the "death chase."